Infusion pumps are provided for diabetic patients to allow for the infusion into the body of the patient of a regulated amount of insulin or other medication. Existing pumps provide a piston for acting on a fluid reservoir and for urging fluid, such as insulin, from the reservoir through a conduit to an infusion set and into a patient.
Some of the existing infusion pumps, such as that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,093 (incorporated herein by reference), have an O-ring or other means for providing waterproof or water resistant sealing between the fluid reservoir, insertable into the pump, and the pump housing. By providing a waterproof or water resistant engagement between an insertable fluid reservoir and the housing, the pump user may engage in activities, such as showering or other behavior that will subject the pump to water. It can be appreciated that the pump and reservoir combination would, advantageously, be water resistant.
Currently, fluid reservoirs that are used with water resistant pumps have a septum sealed reservoir or a luer nosed reservoir. A reservoir having a septum requires engagement with a piercing member to pierce the septum and provide fluid to a conduit for delivery to an infusion pump. The current reservoirs having a male luer fitting integral therewith, require a separate piece, engageable to the fluid reservoir for adapting the fluid reservoir to the water resistant pump. Thus, both of the current types described need a separate piece, either with or without a piercing member, to adapt the fluid reservoir in water sealing relation to the pump housing. While there are some advantages to this arrangement, Applicants have found advantages in providing in a single piece, integral unit, a fluid reservoir with a male luer fitting at a removed end thereof, which one-piece reservoir is adapted to fit in water sealing relation to an opening in a pump housing.
It is more convenient for a consumer to use with a single piece rather than having to engage one piece (an adaptor) to another (a fluid reservoir) and then the combined assembly to a pump housing. Further, there are some advantages in the manufacturing process for providing a single piece of Applicants' novel design. Further, advantages result from Applicants' use of a single piece design, combined with a luer fitting, which luer fitting can be adapted to receive a needle for removing fluid from a larger insulin container, which same luer fitting may subsequently, after the reservoir is engaged with the pump, accept a common female lure fitting attached to a conduit having an insulin set at the removed end thereof.
Applicants provide a novel one-piece fluid reservoir for engagement with an infusion pump, which one-piece fluid reservoir will achieve, in a single unitary piece, a number of functions. Some of these functions, achieved in a one-piece fluid reservoir engageable with an infusion pump, and the associated structure include the following: